1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for providing digital contents capable of distributing and sharing the digital contents and a method thereof. More specifically, the present invention relates to an apparatus for providing digital contents capable of distributing and sharing the digital contents to and with previously registered adjacent apparatuses for providing digital contents and a method for providing digital contents.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent, a mobile telephone, which is a representative personal communication device, has various additional functions in various types. The mobile telephone already includes a high pixel camera phone, a digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) receiving function, etc. In particular, the mobile telephone already has a file viewer or a text viewer that is included in an existing smart phone, etc. Further, the mobile phone has functions such as a moving picture player, an MP3 player, etc. which is the already widely used in the representative mobile terminal. In recent, a portable multimedia player (PMP) includes a wireless communication device such as an HSDPA modem or a wireless LAN device in addition to a moving picture and music reproducing function, a text viewer function, a navigation function, etc. and an Internet browser that is software, such that it has a wireless connecting function by Internet. In recent, the i-Pod touch available from Apple Co., etc., has various moving picture and music reproducing function, a slide show function, etc. and can access the Internet by its own wireless LAN function to provide a function that can purchase digital contents online.
Meanwhile, the various personal terminals described above have been subjected to various technical evolving processes and rapidly expanded to a public. According to this tendency, apparatuses for providing digital contents to provide or sell multimedia contents, such as various movies, dramas, music videos, e-books, etc., which are sold online, to a PMS offline, have been developed.
The apparatus for providing digital contents described above can be installed inside or outside a room where users are crowded and receives the corresponding digital contents from a central server using a pre-stored wired data network according to a request of a user and transmits them to a user terminal. As a result, the apparatus for providing digital contents is an apparatus that charges a fee. The apparatus for providing digital contents provides contents data to the mobile device of the user without separately paying a fee for the use of the packet. As a result, the user can be conveniently provided with the digital contents at a desired location at lower price than a case where the user is provided with the digital contents through wireless Internet services of existing mobile operators.
FIG. 1 is a reference diagram for schematically explaining a contents providing scheme of an apparatus for providing digital contents according to the related art.
A process of purchasing contents when a user purchases contents in the apparatus for providing contents in the related art will be described below.
Generally, when a user purchases digital contents (hereinafter, referred to as ‘contents’) in the apparatuses 10a to 10n for providing contents, if the contents requested by the user (purchaser) are stored inside the apparatus for providing contents, the apparatus for providing extracts the corresponding contents, converts the extracted corresponding contents to meet a kind of user terminals, and transmits them to the user terminals. However, when the contents requested by the user are not stored inside the apparatuses 10a to 10n for providing contents, the apparatus for providing contents should request the corresponding contents (contents requested by the user) to a separate central server 20, download the corresponding contents from the central server 20, and provide them to the user.
Through the foregoing scheme, providing contents requested by the user causes substantially several problems. For example, when providing the contents requested by the user through the foregoing scheme, there are problems in that the transmission bandwidth of the central server is largely affected, it takes time to transmit contents between the central server and the apparatus for providing contents, the network load is increased, it takes time to receive contents from the central server and convert the corresponding contents to meet the user terminal, etc.
In addition, when the user needs a long time to receive contents through an offline, a case where the user abandons the purchase of contents occurs, which is a main cause of hindering the activation of the apparatus for providing contents.